The Partnership Center Newsletter

My colleagues at the HHS Partnership Center and the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships are constantly looking for new ways to connect with you and support your work. In an effort to make our resources more readily available, I want to take a moment and share several tools we offer that may be of interest to you.

The White House Partnerships blog is a great way to see how faith-based and neighborhood organizations across the country are engaging with the federal government on a whole host of issues, from improving health care to preventing youth violence. The White House Partnerships team is also on Twitter – you can follow us at @PartnersforGood. At HHS, we offer a variety of resources for non-profit groups that provide information on how the Affordable Care Act affects your congregants and community members, how to engage with the First Lady’s Let’s Move Faith and Communities initiative, and combating Seasonal Flu. Thank you for sharing these resources with your community!

I also want to highlight an upcoming conference call next Wednesday, October 19th with faith and community leaders to learn more about Text4Baby, a free texting service that provides health tips and reminders to support healthy pregnancies and babies. We hope you can join us for this informative call. You can learn more, including how to RSVP, in the Upcoming Events section of our newsletter.

We are always looking to develop stronger connections with you – our partners across the country – to help you serve your communities. Please feel free to email us at Partnerships@hhs.gov or call us at 202-358-3595 to let us know how we can support your work.

On September 27 the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced approximately $103 million in grants to 61 states and communities to fight chronic disease. The Community Transformation Grants help states and communities to focus on the root causes of chronic disease, such as smoking, poor diet and lack of physical activity. Chronic disease is responsible for 75 percent of health care costs in the United States. By promoting healthy lifestyles, especially among population groups experiencing the greatest burden of chronic disease, these grants will help improve health, reduce health disparities, and control health care spending. Grantees will use the funds by creating prevention programs proven to make a positive impact on health.

Grantees will address five priority areas: tobacco-free living; active living and healthy eating; and quality clinical and other preventive services, specifically prevention and control of high blood pressure and cholesterol. Grantees will also focus on creating healthy and safe environments. Grantees will have an additional focus on reducing health disparities as many lower-income people and racial and ethnic minorities and other underserved populations often have higher rates of disease.

These awards are distributed among state and local government agencies, tribes and territories, and state and local non-profit organizations within 36 states, including seven tribes and one territory. At least 20 percent of grant funds are directed to rural and frontier areas. Thirty-five grantees will implement proven interventions to help improve health and wellness. Twenty-six grantees will build capacity and lay a foundation for sustainable community prevention efforts.

HHS also announced awards to seven national networks of community-based organizations that will help support, disseminate, and amplify the work done in Community Transformation Grant states and communities. The networks will engage community members in identifying solutions to improve health using community based prevention strategies that work and can be models for other locations. The national networks include the American Public Health Association; the Asian Pacific Partners for Empowerment, Advocacy and Leadership; the Community Anti-Drug Coalition; the National Farm to School Network at Occidental College; the American Lung Association; the National REACH Coalition; and the YMCA of the USA.

The Community Transformation Grants are part of a broader effort by the Obama Administration to address the health and well-being of communities through initiatives such as the First Lady’s Let’s Move! initiative; HHS’ Communities Putting Prevention to Work program; and the President’s Childhood Obesity Task Force.

Lisa M. Carr, MSW, is an Associate Director at theCenter for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships (The Partnership Center) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Catholic Charities in Chicago Embraces PALA!

Employees of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago celebrate their PALA achievements!

Among the employees of the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago, there was no lack of initiative in their collective decision to accept the Presidential Active Lifestyle Award (PALA) challenge. The community enthusiastically embraced the challenge, seeking to use it as a means to lead their larger community towards becoming more involved in the First Lady’s Let’s Move Faith & Communities initiative, and to promote healthier lifestyles.

As a first step, the organization formed a new Catholic Charities Wellness Committee to focus on promoting healthy living ideals among the staff. To achieve this goal, the committee decided to challenge employees to be physically active for 30 minutes per day, 5 days a week – for 6 weeks! Employees could report any variety of activity from swimming to walking to dancing or even yoga – they just had to do it every day in order to create new patterns of physical activity and to inspire new healthier lifestyle habits.

The challenge brought together 367 employees, many of whom joined in a headquarters-wide PALA achievement event kicked off by a short walk around the Catholic Charities’ headquarters followed by healthy snacks and certificate presentation. Sparked by friendly competition between departments to take the most positive steps within the challenge, several staff members declared they had lost weight and were committed to a healthier lifestyle due to their PALA challenge experience. “I’ve lost 18 pounds so far and feel really healthy. I owe it to PALA and getting fit to celebrate,” said one Catholic Charities staff member.

In addition to making a commitment to the Let’s Move! initiative, the PALA challenge allowed Catholic Charities to evaluate how they may lead others, beyond the staff, to include fitness and healthy lifestyle choices in their daily lives. Angel Gutierrez, Vice President of Community Development and Outreach Services for Catholic Charities and a Let’s Move! enthusiast, spoke to the staff at the kick-off event: “I’m proud to say that we are doing what we can do to bring health and wellness into our community service programs,” said Gutierrez. “Our Summer Food Program has now incorporated physical activities into the schedule to get kids moving in addition to eating a healthy meal. Our Development department has organized Team Catholic Charities, bringing staff and friends of Catholic Charities together to run the Chicago Marathon. Our own agency Wellness committee is focused on bringing health and wellness ideals to all staff. Let’s all continue to be healthy and active and pass along these ideals to our families, friends and our clients."

Heidi Christensen is the Associate Director for Community Engagement at theHHS Partnership Center.

Latest News

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) recently launched a new “Find a Health Center” app for smart phones, to help you and your community members find federally-funded health centers near you. You can find more information about the app and the kinds of services health centers provide by visiting: http://www.hrsa.gov/about/mobile/.

Affordable Care Act 101 Conference Calls

The HHS Partnership Center is hosting a series of interactive conference calls discussing the benefits and provisions of the new health care reform law.

All calls are open to the public and include a question and answer session where you can ask HHS staff any questions you may have about the Affordable Care Act. We also encourage you to submit questions you would like to have answered on the calls via email to ACA101@hhs.gov.

To participate in one of the conference calls, please select your preferred date from the list below and submit the necessary information. Dial-in information will be made available upon receiving your RSVP.

The HHS Partnership Center will also be hosting a series of conference call tours of the HealthCare.gov website - in both English and Spanish.

Learn how you can help your community members take advantage of this innovative website and the tools it provides to help consumers find the best insurance plan to meet their unique needs, understand when key provisions of the law will go into effect, access resources for prevention, and more.

To participate in one of the conference call tours, please select your preferred date from the list below and submit the necessary information. Dial-in information will be made available upon receiving your RSVP.

Please join the White House Office for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, the HHS and USDA Centers for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition for a conference call with faith and community leaders to learn about Text4Baby. Text4Baby is a free texting service that provides health tips and reminders to support healthy pregnancies and babies. Text4Baby was developed through a broad public/private partnership, including government, private and nonprofit partners.

We look forward to joining with you in conversation about how faith and community leaders can connect moms in your community to this easy-to-use texting service that supports maternal and child health.

Two Day Grant Writing Workshop in Philadelphia, PA

Hosted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), this is an opportunity for faith-based and community organizations to learn more about funding opportunities and how to write a proposal from start to finish!

Connecting Kids to Coverage: The Second National Children’s Health Insurance Summit

This summit will be held in Chicago, IL from November 1-3. Registration is free and can be done here. The conference will highlight successful strategies and explore new approaches to outreach, enrollment, and retention. View the current agenda here.

As always, the final section of our newsletter includes an updated grants listing that faith-based and community non-profits can pursue. It is important to review the funding announcement thoroughly to ensure that the grant is one that is appropriate to your organization’s mission, size, and scope.

Grants Listings

Title: National Neighbors Silver Grant Project

Description: The National Neighbors Silver grant project seeks to support and empower older adults across the country. The initiative brings together community, public and private sector partners together utilizing structured, neighborhood-focused outreach, education, and advocacy led by older adults. National Neighbors Silver funds organizing and education networks, facilitated by local organizers.

Eligibility: NCRC is seeking grant applications from community-based organizations dedicated to safeguarding the financial security of older adults. Organizations must be registered partners of NCRC. Organizations can become members before applying for the National Neighbors Silver grant.

Funding: $47,500 for three years per organization for each of the five organizations selected.

Description: The purpose of this program is to support the implementation of public education and outreach programs that show promise of increasing organ donation. Specifically, this program supports the replication of strategies that have been identified through the research grant program of the Division of Transplantation as effective in increasing donation or strategies identified in the public health literature as being effective in modifying health behavior. The program also supports the implementation of public education and outreach efforts that are based on an established framework for successful public health outreach programs. This grant program is supportive of the Division's mission to educate the public about deceased donation and to encourage individuals to document their decision to be a donor in their statewide donor registry or by some other mechanism where a registry is unavailable. Projects may also increase knowledge of opportunities to donate specific organs or organ sections while living and the process, risks, and benefits of living donation.

Eligibility: This funding opportunity is open to nonprofit providers, including faith-based and community organizations.

Description: The purpose of this program is to support groups helping to meet the food needs of low-income people, increase the self-reliance of communities in providing for their own food needs, and provide comprehensive responsive to local, food, farm and nutrition initiatives. Project initiatives may also seek to assist with local infrastructure improvement and development, planning for long-term solutions, and/or the creation of innovative marketing activities that mutually benefit low-income consumers and agricultural producers are also eligible.

Eligibility: This funding opportunity is open to nonprofit providers, including faith-based and community organizations

Funding: Funding up to $500,000 per organization, up to a potential total award allocation of $5,000,000.

Description: This grant program is to increase solid organ donation and to improve understanding of how to increase solid organ donation. The goal of the grant program is to assist eligible entities in the evaluation of, or the implementation and evaluation of, highly promising strategies and approaches that can serve as model interventions for increasing solid organ donation. Projects may focus on community education and outreach initiatives or hospital based efforts focused on family consent for donation when a death has occurred. Projects may also increase knowledge of opportunities to donate specific organs or organ sections while living and the process, risks, and benefits of living donation.

Eligibility: This funding opportunity is open to nonprofit providers, including faith-based and community organizations.

Continuing our efforts to provide you with partnership opportunities in your community, the section below lists federal grants recently awarded to organizations in your local community.

Core Workplace Health Program

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced awards of approximately $9 million for comprehensive workplace health programs across the nation. The initiative, funded by the Affordable Care Act, aims to help workplaces support healthy lifestyles and reduce risk factors for chronic diseases in order to improve the health of American workers and their families. Over a two-year period, project funds will support evidence-based initiatives to build worksite capacity and improve workplace culture to support healthy behaviors. At the end of this project in 2013, CDC will disseminate the findings and provide recommendations for how to successfully implement and expand successful workplace health programs throughout the United States. Read More.

Community Transformation Grants

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced grants to 61 states and communities with over 120 million residents to fight chronic disease, which is the leading cause of death in Americans. Created by the Affordable Care Act, Community Transformation Grants help states and communities tackle the root causes of chronic disease such as smoking, poor diet and lack of physical activity. Grantees will use these funds, which total more than $103 million, to transform where their residents live, work, play, and go to school so that they can lead healthier, more productive lives. Thirty-five grantees will implement proven interventions to help improve health and wellness. Funding amounts range from $500,000 to $10 million depending on population size and scope of project. These grants are expected to run for five years. Read More.

Comprehensive Primary Care initiative

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has launched a new initiative made possible by the Affordable Care Act to help primary care practices deliver higher quality, more coordinated and patient-centered care. Under the new initiative, Medicare will work with commercial and state health insurance plans to offer additional support to primary care doctors who better coordinate care for their patients. This collaboration is modeled after innovative practices developed by large employers and leading private health insurers in the private sector. Read More.

Childhood Obesity Demonstration Project

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has launched a new effort to address childhood obesity using successful elements of both primary care and public health. Funding made available through the Affordable Care Act will support a four year Childhood Obesity Demonstration Project. Supported by $25 million in funding awards, the project will build on existing community efforts and will work to identify effective health care and community strategies to support children’s healthy eating and active living and help combat childhood obesity. Read More.

Affordable Care Act Prevention and Public Health Fund Grants

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced a series of initiatives that will help over 900 community health centers and community-based organizations to enhance the quality and coordination of health care services across the country. A total of $47 million, made available by the Affordable Care Act, was awarded in every state and will help improve quality and access to services for millions of Americans. They will also support better primary care and behavioral health services for people with mental and substance abuse disorders. Read More.